The Biden administration is set to announce an additional $4.28 billion in student loan relief for nearly 55,000 public service workers on Friday, according to the Department of Education.
This announcement will bring the total amount of student loan forgiveness under the Biden administration to approximately $180 billion, benefiting nearly 5 million Americans, as outlined in a fact sheet released by the department.
The latest round of relief is targeted at participants in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which forgives student debt for those in public service roles, such as teachers, nurses, firefighters, and law enforcement officers, after 10 years of qualifying payments.
The Biden administration has implemented fixes to address longstanding issues with the PSLF program, which had previously failed to deliver relief to many eligible borrowers due to administrative errors and poor implementation.
“The public servants approved for debt cancellation today include teachers, nurses, service members, law enforcement officials, and others who have dedicated their lives to giving back to their communities. They are finally receiving the relief they are entitled to under the law,” President Biden said in a statement.
Of the nearly 5 million borrowers who have had their debts forgiven under Biden’s tenure, more than 1 million were enrolled in the PSLF program, accounting for $78 billion of the total debt relief provided.
